Nursing Shortage

Nursing Dilemma
Name
Institution
Date Nursing Dilemma
Nursing is a profession that involves ethical choices, moral values and guiding principles related to care, compassion and respect for the human dignity. According to various research findings, the nursing profession is practically prone to difficulties which are often stressful concerning making the best decision for the patient conditions (Doherty, 2015). In fact, nursing is described as a noble profession but often prone to terrible challenges. Mostly, the nurses involve their commitments to transcend the technical performance a vow that is rarely present in most of the professions. This paper seeks to describe a typical problem experienced by nurses while providing their services.
According to Oliveira (2014), nurses experience ethical dilemmas on a daily basis as they are practically responsible for taking care of the lives of the patients with a terminal disease such as chronic kidney disease. Mostly, the patients confess to their nurses on the opinion of committing suicide instead of going through all the pain (Matandela, 2014). This way, the nurses are left with a dilemma as they may opt to keep and respect the patient intentions. However, the decision may enable the patient to commit suicide without any intervention from other healthcare members concern which ethically incorrect. The nurse may also choose to involve other nursing members to monitor and prevent the suicide cases which violate the patient’s confidentiality (Galynker, 2015).

In this case, utilitarianism theory should be applied to determine the best moral decision to employ. According to Filip, (2016), utilitarianism theory emphasizes on conducting the on right action by minimizing pain and maximizing happiness to most of the affected people. Therefore, the nurse should inform other staff members to ensure that decision is a benefit to a large number of people.
In summary, the nursing profession is practically prone to so many challenges such as suicidal attempts which are typically stressful to handle. For instance, in this case, the patient disclosed his intentions to commit suicide to his nurse and preferred it to be a secret to prevent other health care providers from altering his plans. However, as McEwen, (2017) points out, it is ethical or legally permissible for the nurses to allow suicidal cases to happen as the utilitarianism nursing theory explains that decisions made by nurses should be a benefit to the majority.
References
Oliveira, I. (2014). The Lived Experience of Nurses Providing End-of-Life Care to Patients on an Acute Medical Unit(Doctoral dissertation, Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa).
Doherty, R. F., & Purtilo, R. B. (2015). Ethical Dimensions in the Health Professions-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Filip, I., Saheba, N., Wick, B., & Amir Radfar, M. D. (2016). Morality and ethical theories in the context of human behavior. Ethics & Medicine, 32(2), 83.
Galynker, I., Yaseen, Z. S., Briggs, J., & Hayashi, F. (2015). Attitudes of acceptability and lack of condemnation toward suicide may be predictive of post-discharge suicide attempts. BMC psychiatry, 15(1), 87.
Matandela, M. (2014). Nurses’ experience regarding in-patients who attempt or succeed in committing suicide in a general hospital in Gauteng, South Africa (Doctoral dissertation).
McEwen, M., & Wills, E. M. (2017). Theoretical basis for nursing. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.